Moral courage is the courage to take action for moral reasons despite the risk of adverse consequences. Thus, moral courage enables leaders to live with integrity, act to uphold the loyalty to their subordinates, and execute their duties with confidence.
The second dimension of leader courage deals with leaders’ moral strength to do the right thing in all situations. Moral courage entails a leader’s strength of character to be willing to incur risk in order to act according to his or her values and beliefs and stand up to authority to protect his or her soldiers’ welfare or defend his or her decisions. (Patrick Sweeney, 2017)
And this is the type of leader that we should need, we must find a leader that can face the consequences even it has a bad effect for the leader, but for the sake of they’re subordinates or member the leader should do the right things with courage.
The lack of moral courage seen today across many sectors of society provides evidence as to why this virtue requires development (Aultman, 2008; Sekerka & Bagozzi, 2007). Scholars have questioned whether or not moral courage is instinctive or a trait that is learned. Aristotle in particular argued that moral virtues are teachable (Day, 2007; Miller, 2005). Most scholars who study ethics agree with Aristotle that everyone, regardless of profession, can benefit from education and training in the area of moral courage (Kidder, 2005).
Some peoples may be good at being authentic in the face of disapproval, but many are not. I know I’m not the type of man that can be best example in being completely authentic in challenging conversations. We do not want to hurt the feelings of others. More to the point, we do not want our own feelings hurt or have our beliefs questioned. However, if we let things slide, good leadership slides with it. And I always do this when im in a serious situation.
A moral evaluation of leadership can be summarized by a leader’s intentions, the means in which someone leads, and the results of what a leader does (Ciulla, 2005). Intentions, means, and results serve as a method to measure the moral courage and ethics of a leader.
But not all the leaders can only have a moral courage. We can do that too. This is an easy one. Moral courage is defined by having the strength to stand up for what you believe is morally correct. An example would be: Watching a High School Superstar bully an underprivileged freshman, all while the crowd seems to be enjoying the scene and even jarring it on. Moral Courage in this scene would involve you in you somehow making a stand to point out the dishonesty, immorality and ugliness of that situation. You would have the courage to do/say something regardless of how anyone there would view you, you’d do it because it was “right”, in your mind, at that time.
Moral courage looks like:
- helping someone push a car out of a snowbank, even if it means being late
- standing up to a bully on the playground
- picking up litter
- doing homework or chores without being reminded
- refusing to listen to or repeat gossip
- practicing what you preach, even when no-one is looking or knows
- turning in a toy or a wallet to the Lost and Found
- a teen who calls home for a ride from a party where alcohol is being served
- a teacher who gives all students an equal voice regardless of race, socioeconomic status, religion, gender or sexual orientation
- a company whistle blower risking job loss, financial cost, and or legal repercussion
- reporting a crime
- participating in a peaceful protest
Lack of moral courage looks like:
- walking away from someone in need
- taking more than your fair share
- laughing at someone’s misfortune or accident
- grabbing the spotlight from someone who has earned it
- placing too much reliance on the letter rather than the spirit of the law
- remaining silent in the face of wrong-doing or injustice
- rationalizations or justifications for action/lack of action
- being inconsistent or capricious with rules and standards for our children
- choosing sides after seeing which way the wind is blowing
- breaking a promise
- lying or cheating
Moral courage sounds like:
- “I believe strongly in _________.”
- “That joke was offensive to women/Muslims/the disabled/etc.”
- “Let’s volunteer.”
- “Dad, I’m in trouble.”
- “I am going to campaign for __________.”
- “It’s not fair that ____________.”
- “I broke this, Mom. I’m sorry.”
- “I’ll march with you.”
- “No, thanks, I don’t want to hear a secret!”
- “You shouldn’t talk behind her/his back.”
- “Will you sign this petition?”
- “You can depend on me.”
Lack of moral courage sounds like:
- “It’s none of my business.”
- “She got what she deserved.”
- “That’s got nothing to do with me.”
- “How could you do this to me?”
- “It’s not for me to judge.” *
- “I only did it once.”
- “This is all your fault!”
- “Just let it slide.”
- “There’s no use trying to change the system, it’s just too strong.”
- “Nobody else is doing anything about it, why should I?”
- “I might get into trouble.”
- “Don’t make waves.”
- “Nobody ever gives me a break.”
References:
Patrick Sweeney (2017) https://www.thayerleaderdevelopment.com/blog/2017/the-importance-of-moral-courage
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